High-stakes guessing

April 23, 2024

Zillow’s Zestimate guesses how much your house (or any other house) is worth. How many data points does Zillow factor in? Is it close to … A.) 100, B.) 500, C.) 7.5 million or D.) 20 million?

The answer: C.) 7.5 million. Dang. That starts with home stats, location data, recent sales and tax assessments, just to name a few. Just like any estimate, you’ll want a professional’s advice when making real estate decisions.

Tags: data, home, Location, location data, real estate, sales, Zillow, Zillow Zestimate

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11 insider tricks for the tech you use every day

If you’re the person skipping updates on your devices … knock that off. You’re missing out on important security enhancements — like iOS 17.4, which adds better Stolen Device Protection and Android’s new Find My feature to locate your lost phone.

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Zoom around the web with these keyboard shortcuts

I spend hours and hours (and hours) online every week looking for the latest in tech for my national radio show, podcasts and, of course, newsletter. Browsing more efficiently means I can spend more time on fun stuff like playing with Abby and answering Qs from all of you!

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Get a little space: Virtual desktops on Windows let you keep work, play, vacation planning and whatever else separate. Hit the Windows key + Ctrl + D to create a new virtual desktop. Use the Windows key + Ctrl + the left or right arrows to move between your desktops. When you’re done, hit the Windows key + Ctrl + F4 to close your current virtual desktop.

105 million air passengers

Passed through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2023. ATL is the busiest airport in the world. Dubai International Airport came in second, with 87 million passengers. You know the old saying: “When you die, whether you’re going to heaven or hell, you’ll connect through Atlanta.”

Print texts for court (or anything else): For iPhone, iExplorer lets you access, view and transfer music, messages, photos and files from any iOS device to Mac or PC. On Android, you can use SMS Backup & Restore.

Get a better Uber price: Put in your destination and pick a car. Close the app, then wait five minutes and reopen the app. I usually get at least a 10% lower price doing this trick.

It’s-a me in the Daily Mail! I’m super excited about my new weekly column in the Daily Mail! This week, I helped someone avoid a crypto scam and a woman being tracked. Check it out, leave a comment (I read them all. Let’s get some USA folks on that page!), and share it with a pal. Your support means a ton.

You need to email someone you don’t know. The subject line is your first place to grab their attention. Try “Referred to you by” or “Quick question” with the person’s name, like this: “Quick question, Kim.”

Student in the family? A student Amazon Prime account is a heck of a lot cheaper than a standard account. Students get six months free, then it’s half off for a year ($69).

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Excel at this: Say you’re using Microsoft Excel, and you have a list of employees’ names in column A (e.g., John Doe, Jane Smith and Emily Jones), but you need to give them standard email addresses in column B. In column B, next to their name in column A, type the corresponding email address — think “jdoe@company.com” for the “John Doe” in column A. Now, the magic: Click on the cell where you typed the email address, and then press Ctrl + E. Excel will automatically “flash fill” the column with email addresses following your pattern.